Normally, when you are printing an edition, you are striving to make each print in the edition as close to identical as possible. Not always though. I am not talking about monotypes or monoprints here. A monotype is created from a completely blank plate by drawing / painting with ink and making one or more impressions on a sheet of [...]

The single most important piece of equipment that a printmaker owns is their press. It is probably also the single most expensive piece of equipment and it may be the heaviest piece of equipment. If you have never been in a print studio though, it may be difficult to imagine what one of these beasties looks like. There are several different types [...]

I finished a new print today, one that has been in the queue for some time. I first started playing with the image in September of 2008. I worked on it on and off for a couple of months, and then put it on the back burner. Somehow, it just wasn't coming together for me. Over the next three years [...]

I finally got busy this week and photographed several recent pieces. C44AC Color Woodcut - 2011 17 1/2" x 23 1/2" Copyright 2011, Dean Russell Thompson All rights reserved This is done from the same set of plates used to produce Tunnel Approach, which I wrote about earlier. I do not often print the same plates in more than one [...]

I think you can safely say that every artist has, at one time or another, created a self portrait. It makes perfect sense: you can be sure that the model is always available and they are guaranteed to work cheap. When I think of self portraits, I always think of Rembrandt. Perhaps it is because I am a printmaker and [...]

When I am decomposing an image for a woodcut, I usually cut one plate per color. There are exceptions to this of course. I will occasionally print one plate more than once with different inks, but the one-per-color approach dominates. It doesn't have to be done that way, however. One approach to multiple colors from a plate is to go to [...]

I thought I would post a video today showing the process I use to cut a plate for a woodcut. The print in question here is a two plate, pseudo reduction print. The image is one I was reworking on a smaller scale from a previous print. I talked about the logic behind that here. The plate material here is [...]

I recently had a conversation with another artist about choosing colors. My woodcuts tend to have fairly simple color schemes, (2-5 colors), so the color choice is important. Perhaps surprisingly though, those decisions tend to happen fairly late in the process. For much of the time that I am working on an image, I am treating it as a greyscale image, [...]

A while back I discussed the notion of revisiting an idea. Today I completed printing an edition where I did just that. Here is the original: Moffett, Eastbound 2007 Color Woodcut 40" x 54" Image Copyright 2007, Dean Russell Thompson All Rights Reserved This is a pretty successful print. I have been able to show it several times and, [...]

I recently completed a new woodcut. It has four plates which are cut in a pseudo-reduction fashion. Three of the plates are 1/2" MDF and the fourth is 1/2" CDX Plywood. The MDF is sealed with shellac and a thin coat of acrylic gesso. The plywood plate is sealed with shellac only. All plates receive an additional seal coat after [...]